Challah Bread, lessons learned

I made 2 loaves for a dinner this past Monday, and rushed through the recipe. The good news is that you can rush challah bread and still come out with good loaves. The bad news is that the loaves were so big, they were still doughy in the middle. Luckily the ends were done enough that we had plenty to eat, but now I own a probe thermometer so I can test future loaves (I believe that 190-200 degrees is the target temp for most bread, but I'll have to double check).

Recipe used was the basic challah recipe, but I made a triple batch to use in my two largest loaf pans (5"x10"x3"), and I could have just used a double batch. I baked it for 40 minutes, I'm guessing another 5-10 was needed. I can't remember just how much dough went into the pans, but that is something else I'll be blogging about. The pans are listed as "1 1/2 lb loaf pans", but I know that 1.5 lbs of dough would fit the smaller pans best.

Sorry about the large gap in the blog, a combination of life getting in the way and bread burnout made me reevaluate how I do the blog. I know that I easily do 100 loaves in a year, but trying to pace it out for the blog is a bit much. So instead I'm going to record what I do and just not worry about repeats or doing 2 a week. So welcome to the easier, more enjoyable blog.

Loaf #17, challah recipe two with bread flour

This was my first successful ring loaf (as opposed to Loaf #13), in which I used the second challah recipe but with bread flour instead of all purpose flour. An egg wash and sprinkling of sesame seeds finished it off. It was a much better bread with bread flour, softer, moister and a bit chewier. It lasted for several days without too much deterioration in flavor and texture.

Challah 2.0
2 teaspoons instant yeast
17 oz bread flour
1/4 cup (2 oz) warm water
3 large eggs, plus 1 for glaze
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar
sesame seeds

Slurry
Whisk together yest, 1 oz of the flour, and all the warm water until smooth. Let stand uncovered for 10-20 minutes until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly.

Dough
Whisk 3 eggs, salt, oil and honey or sugar into yeast slurry. Stir in remaining flour, knead for no more than 5 minutes.

Proof
Proof for 2 hours, shape and proof for another 2-3 hours until the loaf triples in size.

Mix the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 325, 15-20 minutes for rolls, two 15 oz loaves for 25-35 minutes, one 1.5 lb loaf for 35-45 minutes.

Loaf #16, tear apart raisin challah rolls

Again I played with challah bread and all purpose flour, this time adding raisins to the mix to see if it had any effect on the outcome. I've gotten good enough at dividing the bread dough that I just eyeballed it to cut the dough into 8 pieces and put them into a typical loaf pan.

The addition of raisins didn't make up for the fact that all purpose flour has a drier texture than bread flour, not quite as much flavor. But the loaf pan did make for a nice bundle of rolls, perfect for a family dinner or small gift.

A small note. To keep the raisins from mushing and discoloring the bread as much, I keep them in the freezer until right before I add them to the dough. If you don't mind them blending a bit with the dough and discoloring it, then the raisins can be added at room temperature. If you use blueberries it will turn the dough blue unless they are frozen.

Challah 2.0
2 teaspoons instant yeast
17 oz all purpose flour
1/4 cup (2 oz) warm water
3 large eggs, plus 1 for glaze
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar
3 oz raisins (store in freezer)

Slurry
Whisk together yest, 1 oz of the flour, and all the warm water until smooth. Let stand uncovered for 10-20 minutes until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly.

Dough
Whisk 3 eggs, salt, oil and honey or sugar into yeast slurry. Stir in remaining flour and raisins, knead for no more than 5 minutes.

Proof
Proof for 2 hours, shape and proof for another 2-3 hours until the loaf triples in size.

Mix the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing. Bake at 325, 15-20 minutes for rolls, two 15 oz loaves for 25-35 minutes, one 1.5 lb loaf for 35-45 minutes.

Loaf #15, tear apart challah rolls

Again I used all purpose flour like some of the challah bread recipes called for, which didn't do much for the flavor or texture but worked well enough to eat without regret. I wanted to play with the concept of tear apart rolls, so I divided the dough into 10 pieces of equal weight and put them into a 1.5 qt pan coated with nonstick spray. As you can see in the pics, it proofs nicely. After baking and removing from the pan the individual rolls came apart easily.

This is the same dough as used in the previous challah post.





Challah 2.0
2 teaspoons instant yeast
17 oz all purpose flour
1/4 cup (2 oz) warm water
3 large eggs, plus 1 for glaze
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar

Slurry
Whisk together yest, 1 oz of the flour, and all the warm water until smooth. Let stand uncovered for 10-20 minutes until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly.

Dough
Whisk 3 eggs, salt, oil and honey or sugar into yeast slurry. Stir in remaining flour, knead for no more than 5 minutes.

Proof
Proof for 2 hours, shape and proof for another 2-3 hours until the loaf triples in size.

Mix the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing. Bake at 325, 15-20 minutes for rolls, two 15 oz loaves for 25-35 minutes, one 1.5 lb loaf for 35-45 minutes.

Loaf #14, Challah Recipe 2

While looking at this recipe, I realized that many of the challah bread recipes called for all purpose flour instead of bread flour. So for an experiment I tried this new recipe with all purpose flour. I actually did two loaves, one I made into two long pieces, twisted together and twirled into a bowl. The other is a simple braid, although it's better than the first braid I tried in a loaf pan. I think they key is even pressure on the braid, and to make sure there is even pull all over rather than squishing it into the pan so pressure lets part of the dough push up unevenly.

The main difference between this recipe and the previous challah bread recipe is the use of more egg, and it has less flour and water making a smaller loaf. I used sugar rather than honey because that's what I had on hand. This is also adapted from the book "A Blessing of Bread" by Maggie Glezer.



Challah 2.0
2 teaspoons instant yeast
17 oz all purpose flour
1/4 cup (2 oz) warm water
3 large eggs, plus 1 for glaze
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar

Slurry
Whisk together yest, 1 oz of the flour, and all the warm water until smooth. Let stand uncovered for 10-20 minutes until it begins to ferment and puff up slightly.

Dough
Whisk 3 eggs, salt, oil and honey or sugar into yeast slurry. Stir in remaining flour, knead for no more than 5 minutes.

Proof
Proof for 2 hours, shape and proof for another 2-3 hours until the loaf triples in size.

Mix the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing. Bake at 325, 15-20 minutes for rolls, two 15 oz loaves for 25-35 minutes, one 1.5 lb loaf for 35-45 minutes.

I found the all purpose flour just didn't give me the same rich taste as the bread flour. My wife referred to it as the "brown and serve roll" flavor, good but not anything special. I prefer the other challah recipe, both for the flavor and the fact that it makes more bread with fewer eggs not that eggs are super expensive but you do go through alot when baking lots of bread.